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A dolphin is an isolated marine structure for berthing and mooring of
vessels. It is not uncommon that the combination of dolphins with piers could drastically reduce the size of piers.
Dolphins are generally divided into two types, namely breasting dolphins and mooring dolphins. Breasting dolphins serves the following purposes:
(A) Rigid dolphin
The impact energy of vessel is absorbed mainly by fender. As such, the dolphin itself is designed as a rigid structure with a group of piles. The piles serve to transfer the reaction force from fender system to the foundation soils. The design of rigid fender is similar to other structures and the strength and stiffness of rigid dolphin should be sufficient to withstand berthing forces without causing excessive deformations.
Finger jetty is a more efficient pier structure because it could accommodate vessels at both sides of the jetty. However, there should be sufficient water depth as the berths at finger jetty is relatively close to shoreline when compared with T-shaped jetty so that it is anticipated that vessels are required to berth at shallower water. Moreover, there should be no cross current to enhance berthing at both sides of finger jetty. Also, as mooring points are often located on the jetty, leads are not ideal for larger ships.
Mooring lines are provided by vessel while the shore provides the mooring points. Wire ropes provide a more rigid mooring system than fibre ropes. When a high degree elastically is required, fibre ropes would be a better choice.
In marine environment, the cover to reinforced concrete in exposure zones is specified to be much larger than normal concrete (e.g. 75mm). Based on past experimental studies, the concrete cover is identified to be directly related to the corrosion failure of marine structures.
